Ministry of Ayush

The Ministry of Ayush is a ministry of the Government of India, responsible for education, research, and propagation of traditional and alternative medicine systems in India. Ayush is an acronym devised from the names of the alternative healthcare systems covered by the ministry: ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and homeopathy.

The Department of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy (ISM&H) was first established in 1995 under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare by the then Narasimha Rao government. ISM&H was renamed as the Department of AYUSH in 2003. The department was made into an official ministry in 2014.

The ministry has been accused of promoting pseudoscience as most of the practices regulated are pseudoscientific. It has faced significant criticism for funding systems that lack biological plausibility and are either untested or conclusively proven as ineffective. Quality of research has been poor, and drugs have been launched without rigorous pharmacological studies and meaningful clinical trials on ayurveda or other alternative healthcare systems.